


call to arms

by renecdote



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Maddie Buckley is a Good Sister, Some Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28580886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renecdote/pseuds/renecdote
Summary: “For the record,” Buck says immediately, thick through the stitches in his lip, “this wasn’t my fault.”Maddie’s eyes sweep over him, assessing, before her lips settle into a frown.“For the record,” she mimics, “I’m getting really sick of seeing you in a hospital bed.”Buck gets hurt on a call. Maddie meets him at the hospital.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley & Maddie Buckley
Comments: 14
Kudos: 145





	call to arms

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a warm up prompt by memorydragon on tumblr.

The call comes from Howie just before midnight. Maddie is wide awake in an instant, throwing on yesterday’s leggings and a sweater as she argues with him, “I’m already on my way, I don’t need you to pick me up—no, I’m serious, I’m getting in the car right now so don’t bother—”

It takes twenty-five minutes to drive to the hospital. Howie meets her out the front of the Emergency Department doors, talking quickly as he matches her clipped pace through the doors into the waiting room.

“He’s okay,” is the first thing he says. “It looks bad, but I swear he’s okay, they just want to send him home with someone because of the head injury.”

When they push through the doors into the ER proper, the first thing Maddie thinks is that it does look bad. The second is that Howie wouldn’t lie to her. Not about anything, but especially not about this.

Captain Nash sees them coming first. He says something quiet to Buck, who nods unhappily, then he stands smoothly from his seat beside the bed and steps out of the curtained cubicle. Maddie takes his place, arms crossed, hugging herself as she peers down at her baby brother.

“For the record,” Buck says immediately, thick through the stitches in his lip, “this wasn’t my fault.”

Maddie’s eyes sweep over him, assessing, before her lips settle into a frown.

“For the record,” she mimics, “I’m getting really sick of seeing you in a hospital bed.”

Buck—deflates. That’s the only word for it. He sinks into himself, suddenly small, back hunched and shoulders dropping. He keeps his eyes on his hands, picking at the loose threads in the white hospital blanket.

“Yeah.” His voice is a bitter mutter. “You and me both.”

Maddie sits down, deflating herself, and reaches for his hand. “What happened?”

The details on the phone were vague: Buck, hospital, injured on a call. Maddie didn’t need to hear much more than that to get her moving.

Buck glances past her and Maddie turns to find Howie lurking by the end of the bed. Captain Nash is by the nurse’s desk, chatting with one of them, and Eddie and Hen have crawled out of the woodwork to loiter just outside the cubicle as well. Or maybe they were always there and Maddie’s single-minded focus on getting to her brother just blocked them out.

“There was a fire at an apartment building,” Buck says. “One of the people we were trying to evacuate got violent.”

He shrugs, like it’s not a big deal. Like his face isn’t bruised to hell, one eye already swollen shut.

Maddie glances at Howie. “He’s going to be charge for that, right?”

Howie nods. “Athena probably has him sitting in a very uncomfortable jail cell as we speak.”

Good. That means Maddie can spend all her energy worrying about her brother instead of fighting for him. Not that she isn’t perfectly capable of doing both, but if she’s only worrying about Buck she doesn’t have to worry so much about him saying stupid things like _it’s not a big deal_ and _please, Maddie, just leave it, okay? It’s not worth it_.

He’s always worth it. She just wishes he knew that.

As soon as his teammates are gone, called back to work, only Eddie lingering for a moment behind the rest of them, Buck is telling Maddie she doesn’t have to stay. That it’s late, that he doesn’t know how long it will be, that she can go home to bed and he can just take an Uber to her apartment when he’s done.

“Shut up,” Maddie tells him easily, settling more comfortably into her chair. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Partly because she doesn’t trust him to get an Uber to her place instead of his own apartment, but she doesn’t say that—she doesn’t want to see the look on his face, sad and wounded and not as guilty as it should be. And besides, even that part of her reasoning is because she cares. She wants to be here for him. Hospitals are unpleasant enough at the best of times; they’re even worse when you’re alone.

And she stays firm in her decision even though it does take a while. It takes more than a few hours, between getting an x-ray and a CT scan and waiting for all the results. For some of that time, Maddie is sitting alone in an empty cubicle, entertaining herself on her phone. But for most of it she’s by Buck’s side, keeping him company, calling a nurse when he needs something, reassuring him when he drifts off to sleep and wakes up confused and in pain.

“You’re okay,” she tells him, holding his hand, “I’m here, I’ve got you.”

His eyes, cloudy and almost frantic, flicker down to his legs before searching the rest of the room. Maddie smiles when he finds her face. She reaches out and combs back a few errant curls that have come loose from their gel.

“You’re okay,” she repeats.

Buck relaxes and his eyes slip closed again, not sleeping, but resting. Maddie goes to pull her hand away, thinking he won’t want her to keep holding it now that he’s awake, but Buck’s grip tightens. It’s only for a second before he makes himself let go, but Maddie’s smile softens. She changes tack, adjusting her grip instead, and keeps their hands loosely clasped on the edge of the bed.

She thinks that’s going to be it, that no words need to be spoken, but then Buck says, quiet and heartfelt, “Thank you. For coming.”

Maddie squeezes his hand. “Always.”

For a long time, she wasn’t there when he needed her. It’s not a mistake she’s willing to make again. If that means getting out of bed to spend all night sitting in a hospital, then shepherding a tired and grumpy Buck back to her apartment to keep an eye on him while he heals, then so be it. That’s a price she is more than willing to pay.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are love 💛 You can also find me on tumblr [here](https://renecdote.tumblr.com/).


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